Yes and Not. 

To use ReveRig you do not need to know how to rig a character as the whole operation of rigging and skinning is automated and managed by the add-on.

You don’t even need to be an experienced animator as Reverig allows you to transfer to the character the already complete animation captured through motion capture systems.

However having a basic knowledge of the animation process and how this feature on Blender is definitely helpful, especially if you want to make more complex and expressive animations.

Of course, Reverig acts on the shape key of the face and does not interfere with existing armor and rigs.

Indeed, integrating the ReveRig rig with a viewprot 3D facial rig gives the animator more control over facial expressions. 

No. ReveRig offers all the tools you need to make facial animation from scratch. So you are free not to use motion capture systems, but if you want to use them then ReveRig offers special tools to carry out the retargeting of animation in a quick and intuitive way.

Yes. ReveRig offers a panel dedicated to animation retargeting operations. With reverig you can transfer the facial animation from the source mesh to the facial rig of ReveRig and then to your character.

The important thing is to use an application that allows you to import data into Blender (usually as fbx object) and that the character is equipped with the necessary shape key and that the facial rig of ReveRig has already been created and connected to the character.

No, ReveRig is not designed to create the 52 ARKit shape keys but offers a set of tools to manage and animate them in a simple, fast and intuitive way. Reverig can help shape key creation process by allowing you to animate them to verify the correctness of deformations.

If you do not know how to create the 52 necessary shape keys we suggest you look at the How to create the 52 ARKit shape keys section of the documentation.

Though rare this is a problem we are aware of. At the moment we have not been able to fix the problem with the new update.

The best solution is to delete all the newly transferred animation keyframes and repeat the retargeting operation.

If the problem persists then it could be caused by the high number of keyframes to be transferred (very long animation and/or keyframes very close to each other). In this case we suggest dividing the original animation into two or more blocks as well and retargeting for each of them. This way the number of keyframes to transfer is limited. 

If even with this operation the problem persists then do not hesitate to contact us here at BlenderMarket under Ask a Question.

Unfortunately, no feature is currently implemented that allows you to transfer the captured animation with FaceCap Live directly to the character. At the moment the retargeting operation works only asynchronously.

However Reverig is an evolving project so this feature could be added in future updates. 

Stay tuned.

Video tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9ddMJywtec&t

Yes... ARKit face capturing is closed source and exclusive to Apple devices with True Depth Cameras. Please, let me know of alternative frameworks!

Some popular applications such as Bannaflak’s FaceCap and Rokoko’s Face Capture allow you to import captured data into Blender. 

While both ReveRig and Faceit are useful tools for character facial animation, these two add-ons work at two different stages of the production process.

• Faceit works mainly in the modeling phase.
• ReveRig instead is used in the rigging and animation phase itself.

Faceit can be used to create the 52 ARKit shape keys but does not provide any tools to help the user during the animation phase.

On the contrary, ReveRig does not provide for the creation of shape keys but offers a series of tools to help the animator during the entire animation phase; from the creation of the facial rig, to the retargeting phase but above all it provides a user interface that allows the animator to save hours of work in creating the desired facial animation. 

So they are not two equal tools but rather they are complementary.

In neither case are there any problems using ReveRig.

Inside the documentation in the section:

 "What to do if your character has more than 5 meshes or if it has meshes other than those indicated by ReveRig?"

it is described in depth how to proceed if you find yourself in this condition.

We have also made a short video tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSNlAuYHqFo

If you still have problems or doubts, please contact us in the Ask a Question section.

Yes. ReveRig acts mainly on 56 shape keys (the 52 defined by ARKit and 4 related to the animation of the pupils). 

Any other shape keys made for your character will simply be ignored by ReveRig and therefore will not compromise their use.

Obviously, none of the additional shape keys must be named as one of the 56 provided by ReveRig.

The list of 56 shape keys can be found in the documentation

ReveRig works with all characters with 52 ARKit shape keys (all or some of them). These shape keys are designed primarily for human or humanoid characters but you can also apply them to more particular characters.

The important thing is that to work the shape key must comply with the nomenclature and deformation provided by ARKit.

Shape Keys do not correlate with armature deformations so you will be able to bind the character geometry to new armatures even though you created Reverig’s facial rig. Use any of the popular rigging tools like:

• Auto-Rig Pro
• Rigify
• Wiggle bones
• ...

These are the 52 shape keys defined by Apple’s augmented reality system (ARKit) specifically designed to perform facial motion capture with True Depth Camera devices.

The full list with the correct nomenclature and expected deformations can be found at the following link Apple ARKit Blendshape. (here the shape keys are called blendshapes).

Reverig operation is mainly based on 52 ARKit shape keys plus 4 other shape keys related to pupil contraction/expansion. So the best result is when all 56 shape keys are present.

However, Reverig can also work with a limited number of shape keys as long as they are correctly named.

Reverig theoretically works even if there is only one shape key. For example, the shape key jawOpen that controls the opening and closing of the jaw. Obviously in this case the potential of Reverig is limited.

Yes, ReveRig works even if the character is composed of a single mesh. 

ReveRig potentially offers the ability to tie up to 5 meshes to the facial rig at a time (potentially it is possible to bind infinite meshes). But the only field that is mandatory to enter in order to proceed with the binding operation is the Face field. 

Indeed, it is often preferable to merge the different character meshes into one or two main meshes in order to reduce the complexity of the character.

A quick Video Tutorial on how to use ReveRig with characters with only one mesh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUw8rFnVRMs&lc=Ugyn3NDvgwwphW-7sch4AaABAg

We recommend choosing a Studio version if ReveRig will be used in work teams made up of several members.

The development and maintenance of ReveRig has required and still requires a lot of work, so although at the add-on level there are no real differences between the two versions, proceeding with the purchase of the Studio version is the best way to support the development of ReveRig and to maintain and increase the entire community.

Fixed Up: This error should no longer occur from ReveRig version 1.10, so before proceeding I recommend you to install the latest version. ReveRig now automatically renames FaceCap shape keys correctly.

If you are using version 1.00:

The error is due to the fact that the shape keys of the FaceCap model are named differently from what is foreseen by ARKit and ReveRig.

Therefore, we recommend that you check that all the shape keys of the FaceCap model are named correctly and if they are not, you need to rename them. FaceCap names the shape keys according to this structure: eyeLookIn_R and eyeLookIn_L; while to work with ReveRig they must be named as: eyeLookInRight and eyeLookInLeft.

You can find the correct nomenclature in the ReveRig documentation in the Important Reads chapter.

If you want to use ReveRig to manage eye rotation then you need to create the relative shape keys.

It is not necessary to create all 52 shape keys but it is sufficient to create the specific ones for the eyes.

Eyes: eyeLookDownLeft, eyeLookInLeft, eyeLookOutLeft, eyeLookUpLeft, eyeLookDownRight, eyeLookInRight, eyeLookOutRight, eyeLookUpRight.